Saturday, November 8, 2008

Having a Magical Day

My husband and I took four of the grandkids up to a Disney Beach Resort last week for a few days. We go to Disney World several times a year because we’re only a couple of hours away and love their resorts so we thought it would be fun to go to their resort on the beach. It’s too hot for the parks for me but having the Disney characters for the kids seemed like a good plan. Besides, Disney resorts are typically great.

I made the reservations a month or so ago and specifically requested adjoining rooms because we would have four children with us. I was assured that would not be a problem. When we arrived and went to check in, the clerk was a total ditz. She said that there was a situation and she didn’t want to be the one to tell me and she would get one of the managers, Buster or Bonnie. Dave came out to talk to us. He proceeded to tell me that there was a problem with the adjoining room and it would not be available until the next night and he would have to give us a room down the hall from the other one. “This is a problem,” I told him. “We have children too young to be in a room by themselves which is why I requested the adjoining room.” “Sorry,” Dave said. “There’s nothing I can do. The room needs some tile work and there’s no other room with an adjoining room. But, if it makes you feel better, we won’t charge you for the second room tonight and tomorrow we’ll move you into the adjoining one. Is that okay?”

Well, of course it wasn’t okay but we didn’t want to drive back home and disappoint the kids. Oh, did I mention that there was also a horrific thunderstorm in progress? The lobby had wall to wall kids running everywhere and hula hooping and lying all over the floor. This was definitely going to be fun!

I waited for the ditz to get the keys for our rooms and after a few tries, she got them ready and then as a consolation prize, she handed the kids stickers of Mickey and pins that announced that this was their 1st Visit to Vero Beach Disney Resort. I saw the kids looking back and forth at each other with a grin on their faces and as soon as we walked away from the check in counter, they said in unison, “Oh Nana, And have a magical day!”

Magical was about the last adjective I felt like using at the moment, so I gritted my teeth and said nothing. We proceeded to the rooms where of course, the keys didn’t work so my husband, at this point not wanting me to go back to the desk, went back down to get the keys. They actually use those cards but apparently, the check in clerk needed Bonnie or Buster sans Dave to produce them.

We finally got into the room and the luggage came and figured out who would sleep where that night. My husband would go to the other room with two kids and I would stay in this room with two. Good solution but of course, the kids had to argue about who would go where. They’re two sets of cousins so of course, where you sleep is a big deal. That settled we went down to explore.

The resort is on the beach but you can’t really see the beach because there’s sea grapes too tall to see over. That’s so the turtles don’t see the light at night when they come up on the beach to lay eggs. It’s actually not a bad facility but I was still annoyed so nothing was looking good at the moment. We sat down on the huge back porch to discuss where we would have dinner and what we would do next and decided we’d check out the pool. A large nerdy man with his Ipod stuck in his ear and wearing a Safari type hat was sitting next to us and apparently had been eavesdropping becaused he announced that the pool was closed. I said, “Oh well, we just want to go down to see what it looks like.”

“It’s locked and you can’t get in,” he said. That about put me over the top. The rest of the weekend, he was known as the Whumpalump. It’s a small resort so you tend to see the same people quite a bit. Anyway, the pool was actually nice and had a great slide and a nice snack bar area and chairs and umbrellas so I was happy.

The rain stopped and the kids swam for a while before dinner and we had a nice evening. A couple of glasses of wine and things were starting to look up. The kids were great and had fun at dinner and then terrorizing the lobby and gift shop that night. We finally headed up and split up for bed. Then of course, the kids that went down to the room with my husband needed things that were down in our room and it took several trips to get everyone settled in for the night.

The next day was great. We spent the day at the pool and they swam and made hundreds of trips up the steps of the slide and I took great pictures of them hitting the water. Even the drinks were convenient because we bought these huge mugs that the kids could fill up all they wanted at the snack bar and no one got sunburned so all was good. We even got a few laughs in at the expense of the Whumpalump when he went down the slide and splashed most of the water from the pool.

That night we went to the nicer restaurant in the resort and there were no kids in the whole place but our four. You could see the looks on the faces of the other diners when we walked in with four kids. But, it’s one of those times that your heart feels like it might burst with pride. They were perfect children. We ordered and we ate and we had a nice conversation about our day and I loved it. The chef sent out chocolates for them and the server made them ice cream sundaes. Later that night we went to the campfire on the beach and they sang songs and made S’Mores. Well, that was a lot of sugar for the day and you can imagine the rest of the night. They were wound up. We eventually got everyone to bed.

We had gotten settled into the adjoining room earlier in the day. I had gone up to check to see if it was ready and my husband stayed at the pool with the kids. After determining that it was indeed ready for guests, the same ditzy lady made the new keys. You’ll love this; she said, “I’ll have to send someone up to open the door between the rooms.” I had the key to both rooms in my hand so I said, “Or, I could just open the door in the first room and then go open the door in the second room and Voila, there we are.” It took a minute but then she said, “Oh, yes that would work.” Okay, then.

Well, the next day at the pool was pretty fun. They had a disc jockey and limbo and dance contests and a tug of war in the pool which was really funny. My husband and I enjoyed the disc jockey and while in the pool decided to dance and sing along. It was our chance to pay the grandkids back for any earlier times that they might have embarrassed us because they were mortified. None of the four wanted to acknowledge that they knew us. Great fun! Doing the YMCA in the pool is a blast.

Later, my husband and I were sitting watching the kids swim and a man stopped to say that he and his wife had been in the restaurant the night before and just wanted to say that they were so impressed with the kids’ behavior. What a nice compliment! Too often, we are all guilty of making our complaints known but not so often taking the time to say something nice.

By now, you’ve probably (if you’re still reading) figured out, my moment of Magic had arrived. Actually, it had been there all along. I just couldn’t see it for my negativity. So, as you all go about your summer trips wherever they might take you, take time to notice the good stuff and “have a magical day”.